Roaring about life since 2009

GOP Caucus update

I attended the local Republican caucus at for the 3rd year in a row last night, and a fun time was had by all. Got to Moorhead High School about 6:30pm, pretty early I know but I wanted to scope out the room before the whole thing got started. I was met at the door to the auditorium by Jeff Backer who is running for State Senate in our district. Nice guy, I wish him the best of luck. By the time we started, I noticed that most of the conservative elected officials in Moorhead were there – Brenda Elmer, Luther Stueland and Mark Hintermeyer from the City Council and Bill Tomhave from the school board are the ones I recognized right away.

After some socializing, the Chairman gave an introduction which was followed by some remarks by State Representative Morrie Lanning about Republican prospects both in Minnesota and around the country. I realized again why I’ve voted for Rep. Lanning whenever I could. He’s definitely a good voice for 9A.

After the speakers, some letters from candidates were read, I was particularly interested in the governor’s race. Tom Emmer’s letter was read by Luther Stueland, and I really enjoyed what I heard. It seemed very personal and energetic, just like what I’ve seen from his campaign. I think I’m leaning more in Emmer’s direction as of late, especially after hearing Seifert’s letter, it just seemed very…uninspiring.

Sure Seifert’s letter covered all the classic conservative bases, but I just came away feeling unfulfilled and unexcited, like what I’ve seen from his campaign. I honestly agree with this opinion on TrueNorth today about Seifert’s moderate success in the GOP straw-poll, the author states that “considering Seifert’s ‘commanding lead’ in dollars, his insider status, and inheritance of a campaign operation – only garnering 50% last night is a bad performance.” I’d have to agree with that assessment.

After the last letter was read we broke up into groups based on precinct and went to separate rooms to continue the caucus. There 5 people including me in our room for 4W1P, and we elected a Precinct Captain and Secretary (the latter of which was me, oh boy!), took the straw poll that Emmer won with 3 votes, and had a lively discussion about some points of the MN GOP platform such as homeschooling, nullification by the 10th amendment and healthcare. Since we were allotted 8 delegates for the precinct, and there were 5 people there, we voted us all as delegates to the County BPOU convention on Feb. 27th.

A lot of people were curious why I, as a relatively young person, was as interested and committed enough to come to local caucus. I realized I didn’t really know what to say, but after I thought about it, it was because I strongly believe that the principle of responsibility, which Rep. Lanning said was at the heart of our party, is really the best choice for Minnesota. Whether its personal responsibility, fiscal responsibility or social responsibility, all of them are essential to good governance in Minnesota.

So that was pretty much the caucus, I thought it was a fun night bu then again I’m a political nerd. haha.

It was nice to see Conrad again since it’s been a while since we last talked, especially about politics, so that was cool too.

About Me

Hey everybody my name is Mike Magnusson, also known as the Minnesota Grizzly Bear and I’ve been adding a healthy *roar* to conservative commentary since 2009.

I’m a registered Republican, liberty-lover , free market advocate, NRA member and a proud follower of Asatru (what we believe in a nutshell: Gods, Family, Responsibility). I’m an undergraduate student ready to graduate in 2010, and my interests are